


An Unexpected Visitor

by sumhowe_sailing



Series: Snapshots of Domesticity [2]
Category: Raffles - E. W. Hornung
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-15
Updated: 2017-06-15
Packaged: 2018-11-14 11:28:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11207145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sumhowe_sailing/pseuds/sumhowe_sailing
Summary: Raffles is easily distracted and Bunny just wants to read.





	An Unexpected Visitor

“Do you hear that?”

“Mmm?” Bunny asked without looking up from his book.

“Listen—I think we have an unexpected visitor.”

That got his attention. Visitors were so rare since they had begun their secluded life in the country that they were essentially nonexistent. Only the landlady, who came regularly, ever dropped in on them now.

“I haven’t heard anyone.”

“Because you will not listen—there, do you hear it now?”

He did indeed. It was not footsteps or a tapping at the door: only a low buzzing. Their ‘visitor’ was just a bee—and no wonder, given how wide they’d left the window open on this scorching summer day. His curiosity satisfied, he turned his attention back to his book.

“Help me find it, Bunny.”

“It’s only a bee,” Bunny, who was at that part of the story that made him impatient of interruptions, huffed.

“And a very distracting one at that.”

“Let it alone, AJ, I’m sure it will wander out again soon.” But Raffles had no intention of letting the intruder alone. He had set his mind on removing the distraction, and with or without Bunny’s help he would do just that.

It did not take long to spot it once he really started looking. It was hovering about some old newspapers, apparently trying to decide whether or not to land. Raffles reached for an empty wineglass and then stalked towards the bee. Bunny, still immersed in his novel, ignored him. He heard the faint noise of glass coming down suddenly against a table, but as there was no triumphant remark, he assumed the bee had been too quick, even for Raffles. He heard without really listening as Raffles continued to prowl about the room, tracking his prey, and uniformly missing when he lunged for it. Even creeping up on it did not seem to work for him. Bunny knew he was grinning, but if Raffles had asked he would have said it was simply due to the book—nothing whatsoever to do with him.

Of course he was aware that Raffles’ hunt for the miniscule intruder had brought him near; even if there was no sound of footsteps, even if Raffles had not been muttering under his breath, he would have known. When you have loved someone for so long it becomes easy to know without looking whether or not you can reach out and hold them. What he did not know was just _how_ close Raffles was. And then Raffles, so intent on the bee he had neglected to watch for furniture, stumbled backwards over the arm of the chair and landed heavily in Bunny’s lap.

Bunny, finally seeing a distraction more worthy of his time than the story, put the book aside. Reaching out to stroke Raffles’ hair, he said in his best theatrical mock sternness,

“If _this_ was all you wanted, dear, you might have just said. There was no need to bother that poor bee for it.”

Raffles shifted into a better position to pull Bunny down for a kiss. Bunny was not done ‘scolding’ yet.

“Honestly, if you had just let it alone, the thing probably would have found its way out on its own.”

And before either of them felt the need to extricate themselves from the ensuing embrace, that is just what the bee did.


End file.
